Back Bay Boston Real Estate

About Back Bay, MA

Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It spans from the banks of the Charles River north, from Arlington Street to Columbus Avenue. It’s considered to be one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States. It’s also known for its fashionable shopping destination; Newbury and Boylston Streets.

Before its transformation into buildable land, the Back Bay was literally a bay. This bay was tidal and the water rose and fell several feet over the course of each day, with the bay’s bed exposed as a marshy flat during low tide As early as 5,200 years before present, Native Americans built fish weirs there, evidence of which was discovered during subway construction in 1913.

The Back Bay design, with wide, parallel, tree-lined avenues unlike anything seen in other Boston neighborhoods, was greatly influenced by Haussmann’s renovation of Paris. The neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 1966, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Back Bay Architectural Commission to regulate exterior changes to Back Bay buildings, citing, “to safeguard the heritage of the city of Boston by preventing the despoliation”